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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Baby #2 Bumpdate: 5th and 6th month

I know, I know.  I've pretty much completely disappeared for the last few months but we've been busy settling into our new home and going on some long-overdue vacations.  At any rate, I am also overdue for a bumpdate so here goes a combination one for months 5 and 6.  Hopefully, I'll be back in the groove next month.

I'm now into my 3rd trimester and starting to feel it.  Back pain, especially in my upper back and shoulders, has been the bane of my existence this last week or so. Bending over is a task that I already try to avoid as often as possible because of my back but also because Coen is in the way :).  My energy never was very high last trimester, but that's to be expected chasing a very energetic almost-two-year old (Eeek! I can't believe he will be two in less than two months!) around.  And now that third trimester has started, I just feel exhausted pretty much constantly.

Coen continues to be more energetic than his brother was.  He's already woken me up from a sound sleep (and if you know me, that takes some effort!) with his kicking.  Daddy felt him for sure a few weeks ago and was like "what is he doing in there?!"  I wish I could peek in and see because I'm wondering the same thing!  He seems to be practicing for some sport that hasn't been invented yet.

How far along today: 29 weeks + 2 days

Baby size:  At 29 weeks, baby was the size of a small cabbage, approximately 17 inches long and 2.9 lbs.  At his last ultrasound 
(21 weeks), he was starting to drop percentiles, just like his brother did and I am no longer measuring a week ahead, but more like a week behind.  At my 26 week visit, I was already a cm behind on fundal height, which is still considered normal, especially for a second pregnancy.  I'm hoping for an extra ultrasound after my next appointment (like I got with Liam at about 30 weeks).

Trimester: Let the fun begin.  Third trimester is here.  


Gender: As I announced in my Gender Reveal Post, it's a BOY!  


Name: This little guy's name will be Coen Gabor.  See my What's in a Name Post to see how we chose this name and why it is so special to us.

Movement: I'm past the stage of "I think I felt him!" I have no doubts that my little man is moving around.  It feels as if my whole stomach shifts at times or that he's focusing on punching/kicking his way out in one chosen area.  I love sitting and watching my belly move.  So far, he hasn't chosen to lay on one side over the other like Liam did (thankfully!).  Coen prefers to kick and wiggle.  The adorable hiccups have started, and boy does it feel strange to have your belly twitch rhythmically!  And the rhythm feels so much faster than I remembered.

Cravings: Peanut butter and bananas.  This sums up the last two months.  I have made countless peanut butter banana shakes and the hubby has picked up bananas for me on his way home from work when we ran out. The boys in my house do not share my love for these shakes.  But oh well, more for me and Coen ;).

I also went through a happy week of wolfing down muscadines.  There was a week or two of a carrot frenzy (my boys may have gotten tired of carrots to go with every meal) and Barberitos seems to call my name more often than it should.


Aversions: I have to think pretty hard to come up with aversions.  I'm pretty much an eating machine these days, but I did attempt to use up a can of corn from our pantry the other night and I couldn't eat more than a bite.  I understand why it sat there so long now.  Canned corn tastes weird to me and somehow my pregnant taste buds weren't having it at all.  Interestingly enough, overly sweet desserts make me feel sick.  This is strange because that is SO not me.  (Don't worry, chocolate cake doesn't count as overly sweet!)


The Not So Fun Pregnancy Stuff: Oh the emotions!  I have a lot of mood swings and considering we have a few major decisions coming up and in the works, that has NOT been helping.


I FEEL SO HOT!  Summer is my favorite season and has been as long as I can remember.  I love how pretty fall is but I always feel sad when the weather starts to cool down.  However, this year, I'm in a rush to have that happen.  Georgia is hot still.  We're seeing days in the high 90s with high humidity and I feel like I have an internal space heater on at all times.  Nights are the worst and we've slowly been creeping down on the thermostat and up on the ceiling fan speed (the latter of which my husband is VERY happy about).  He actually commented that he wakes up cold in the mornings (that's saying something if you know him!)

Sleep is getting harder as getting comfortable gets harder.  I don't know what I would do without the body pillow the hubs got me for our anniversary. I use it to prop myself up so I can somewhat sleep in my happy position still--on my belly.  Falling asleep seems to be less of a struggle now because of exhaustion, but staying asleep is another matter.  Some nights I feel like I get up to pee every 2 hours at least.  Sometimes I wake up just from back pain (which seems to be whenever I inadvertently roll onto my back and more and more frequently, in general, lately).  Other times, my little wiggle worm rouses me (the first time was at 23 weeks when he was attacking my belly button from the inside.  This sensation was accompanied by a horrible nightmare of someone punching me repeatedly in my belly button).  And of course, Liam has his rough nights every once in a while.

So far, sciatica has been at bay.  There are times when I get up from bed or from sitting for an extended period of time (when does that happen?!) and I feel a shot of pain down one leg (or both) but after a few steps, it seems to go away and this has only happened a handful of times so far so I can't complain.  Sciatica was my nemesis last pregnancy so it doesn't seem bad in comparison.

Worst moment: I failed my 1 hour glucose tolerance test.  My sugar was 143 (yep, cut off is 140).  With Liam, it was about 70 so I more than just a little freaked out.  I scoured the risk factor list and found that I meet exactly 0 of these so...I jumped to the most logical conclusion (OK, not exactly) but I decided I must be developing Type I diabetes and pregnancy was just unmasking it somehow.  After suffering (and I do mean SUFFERING) through the 3 hour test with my toddler, though, I am happy to report that my glucose was once again LOW at every single testing point.  The nurse says she has no idea what happened with my first test.  I'm just thankful to be back on the low side.  It's silly but I had to have one last piece of chocolate cake the night before my test when my fasting began.  And while I would have no problem sticking to the diabetic diet because I know how important it is, I am SO SO thankful that I don't have to give up my sweets.

Most exciting momentsThe hubs finally feeling Coen move around about two weeks ago was memorable.  I remember him having a lot of trouble sensing Liam's movements and how much it frustrated both of us.  Liam seemed to stop moving completely whenever he sensed a hand on my belly so it took more weeks and more patience for the hubs to finally feel him.  Coen thankfully is not so shy and I treasure sharing our baby boy with his Daddy so early on.

I hate to be a medical nerd but the milestone of hitting 24 weeks was huge to me.  My baby is viable!  He still needs to take his time of course.  We are in no rush for him to come yet, but if he did, he'd be welcomed to the NICU where his chances of survival are now (at almost 30 weeks) good.  Now that's a milestone to be excited about!

What I'm most looking forward to:  The next big things coming up for us are in October.  I'm looking forward to apple picking sometime in mid-October and Liam's two year old birthday at the end of the month. I'm pretty excited about his party. Of course Halloween comes right after that. We have a tradition of going to Boo at the Zoo and hopefully we will get to trick-or-treat as a family.  Fall with its cooler weather is probably the biggest thing I'm excited about right now though (and hopefully the first thing to happen!).

Big Brother: Big brother seems to be in the know about baby brother but it's hard to tell how much he understands.  He calls Coen "Kutch-Ko" and happily announces that Coen's room is "Kutch-Ko" and points to my belly and says "Kutch-Ko".  He also has a fascination with a library book we got two weeks ago called "Ellen and Penguin and the New Baby" (we had to recheck it today).  He begs for us to read "Baby" at least twice a day. The story is about a little girl with a new baby brother and how she views and comes to accept the changes the baby brings to her family.  He points to the baby in the book and says "Kutch-Ko" and "baby" and I explain that he will have a baby brother like that too.  I'm sure Coen will still come as a shock, but I'm hoping preparing him this way will help some.

In the whirlwind of a beautiful summer of two beach vacations and a trip alone with my better half, the weeks flew by.  Big brother is now completely transitioned to his big boy bed (even naps!) and has no desire to sleep in his baby crib because he's a "big boy!" like "Elmo" (who is his newest obsession along with the book "Elmo Loves You" that we also read multiple times a day every day). The only thing left in order to finish his big boy room is to take the crib out (which is just of matter of Daddy finding time to disassemble it now).

Liam has grown so much and is so tall!  Nagyi and Papi took us to Starbucks last weekend and as I looked at him sitting on his own chair, sipping his own hot chocolate, I had a realization that he really is a big boy now.  We even ended up having to turn his carseat to forward-facing this week because he is simply too tall to be rear-facing despite being well below the weight limit and me wanting to make it to that magical two years that the AAP recommends.  But that's parenting: changing plans from what you imagine as best to what actually works best for your child.  This is a lesson I've learned very well over the last two years.









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